Back pain reporting in children and adolescents: the impact of parents' educational level.

BACKGROUND

Social class, including educational level, is a strong predictor for health-related perceptions and behavior and for health outcomes in general. It is not known whether parental education has an effect on back pain in their offspring.

OBJECTIVES

To establish whether parents' educational level is associated with back pain reporting and consequences of back pain in their children.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey.

DATA COLLECTION

Information on parental education was obtained through questionnaires to parents and back pain information through standardized interviews with the children.

PARTICIPANTS

Children aged 8 to 10 years (n = 481) and adolescents aged 14 to 16 years (n = 325) obtained through a proportional 2-stage cluster sample.

SETTING

Local schools in Odense, Denmark.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

The strength of association and dose-response connection were studied between parental educational level (high/medium/low) and the outcome variables (back pain in the preceding month, and consequences of back pain) in their children.

RESULTS

There was a significant modest negative association between the level of parental education and back pain in children but not in adolescents. There was no significant association between parental educational level and back pain consequences.

CONCLUSIONS

Further research in this area requires a more ingenious approach such as use of more socially heterogeneous study populations than those usually found in Denmark.